This section is intended to provide a background or context to the invention that is recited in the claims. The description herein may include concepts that could be pursued, but are not necessarily ones that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, what is described in this section is not prior art to the description and claims in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
BIONETS refers to the framework of a European Union (EU) project that seeks to promulgate networks and services that are modeled after, e.g., bio-inspired, self-evolving, ecological, and/or socio-economic communities. It is desired that such types of networks and services further the trend towards pervasive communication environments, where distributed networks can replace “fully-connected” networks. For example, autonomic networks or systems can comprise mobile devices, referred to as user nodes (U-Nodes) and embedded sensing devices referred to as tiny nodes (T-Nodes), where the T-Nodes are capable of sensing environmental/contextual data that can be utilized by the U-Nodes to, e.g., enhance services.
One desired characteristic identified in BIONETS involves evolution, where autonomic networks, systems, services, protocols, etc. continuously undergo self-optimization to provide increasingly “better” service to the U-Nodes. It is foreseen that services may also die out from, e.g., obsolescence and failure to satisfy the needs of users. Evolution in BIONETS can comprise a variety of different and/or inter-related processes, such as transformation operations, fitness evaluations, competitive selection, and communication, where communication can be utilized to, e.g., exchange information for the transformation operations, fitness evaluation feedback, etc.
Additionally, evolution can be considered in terms of at least two perspectives, for example, micro/microscopic-evolution and macro/macroscopic-evolution. Micro-evolution refers to the evolution of smaller operations, such as individual programs or service blocks that may implement a particular service, and transformation operations related to such individual programs, for example, self-tuning parameters. Macro-evolution refers to the global impact or evolution that the smaller operations or service blocks have on a larger network or system, such as the interaction between the individual programs and how certain individual programs may replicate and/or propagate throughout a network, cooperation between individual programs, etc.
One issue in service development is that, while oftentimes it is possible to recognize a user's dissatisfaction with a service, it is difficult to formally crystallize the user's problem in a manner that would allow for the resolution of the problem. Moreover, a user may, for example, misinterpret the existing dissatisfaction. Hence, a developer seeking to address the user's dissatisfaction attempts to create a remedy by following a “false path” based upon the user's misinterpretation. As a result, the user's dissatisfaction can go unresolved or unaddressed.
Services deployed and used in conventional networks are strongly focused or oriented to completing a certain task, but do not provide enough flexibility for self-evolution, customization, and/or personalization to the specific needs of different users. Furthermore, even when generalized service development is properly focused to completing a task, a lack of self-evolution capability remains a limiting factor to the completion of that task. For example, scenarios can exist where a service can provide 95% of a user's needs and requirements, but the remaining 5% defines overall success of the service. In addition, service adjustment conventionally involves a plethora of human resources, which may result in inefficient service adjustment. Even when a problem is properly identified, oftentimes, too much time is spent in modifying the service to address the problem and in deploying a new version of the service throughout a network. This is turn can often result in the loss of one or more business opportunities.